Oftentimes when people ask me what I do for a living, I respond with "I'm a Network Engineer". That is not what I do. My response is not a verb as it should be. It's a noun. It's just what I am.. My identity seems wrapped in those two words. Those two words convey that I've had a decent education, that I earn a decent living and that I'm of an average intelligence. I remember when I had to leave my job a couple of years ago. I had to go on a hiatus for two months. Two of the most frustrating months I had ever experienced. I refused to give up my laptop issued by my company though I was absent from the US payroll. I felt like giving it up meant surrendering the last vestiges of my identity as an engineer. Now 3 years into the profession, when I look forward on what I want to do and how I want to direct my career path, I see how my identity can change from an engineer to a professor. One day, when my physical and mental abilities fail me, I will have to assume an identity fitting for that stage. All this does not matter on the day I die. All that matters on that day is how God identifies me.
